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My story

I have been in the food business since I can remember. My first stab at it was at Rico's pizza in San Jose, California when I was 14. As an Armenian kid I was told that I qualified for a job there just by being Armenian. I was super nervous when I approached the owner for a job. "I heard that if you are Armenian you can get a job here."

the response? "When can you start?"

thus a life long career in the food business was born.

The last 15 years have been spent in the natural foods industry and of the last 11 they have been almost obsessively focused on selling cheese, wine, beer, chocolate...you know, the good stuff that everybody wants and nobody needs!

Halloween 2003 with a half wheel of Beeler Sbrinz

After many years of climbing the company ladder in the world of cheese and living a somewhat sedentary lifestyle of VERY rich food indulgence I found myself extremely obese (by medical definition), with the triple threat of lifestyle induced diseases. Diabetes, high cholesterol, and high blood pressure.

october 2010 eating raclette at burrough market london

I tried to follow the doctors orders...kind of... and after about 7 years of getting progressively worse I was on the verge of being prescribed daily insulin injections. Mind you I was already on 4 drugs at this point. For me that was a wake up call. I ain't stickin' needles in me!

My employer offered a health immersion program for those of us that qualified. The way it works is that you go live at a facility for a week, eat healthy food, exercise, and learn about proper nutrition. More on that in a minute. Being the stubborn person that I am I decided I could do this on my own. I bought a vegan diet based book on how to reverse diabetes and I followed the plan for a month. My numbers drastically improved. I lost a little weight but my month long experiment ended on my birthday on a trans-atlantic flight to Zurich for a cheese buying trip.

Up until that point my main basic decision on weather a food was worth eating was solely left to my palette and my brain. My stomach and other organs whom have to process everything that goes into my mouth had absolutely no say in what I ate and very poor representation up in the brain. This 30 second experience in my mouth determined weather a food was good, average, bad, or mind blowing-ly phenomenal. I was never concerned about what the effects of that food would be on my system or my long-term health. For most of us this decision making process is the only process we have. Most of us have ideas about what is healthy and what is not but rarely does that guide us to make better decisions. We like pleasure. its natural. Its a normal human drive. The only interruption in this process for me was getting better information. This is precisely what happened when I got McDougalled.

A CHOICE AND A CHANCE

Now I was presented with a choice and a chance. The choice was what to eat on a daily basis and how that food would either cause my body harm or it would heal it. The chance I was given was on the one hand-to spend the rest of my life on drugs, a regular customer of the medical profession, severely overweight, with low self-esteem, and most likely a limited amount of time with my wife and kids or choose the foods that the human body thrives on, heal my body and my mind and get to see my kids grow up and maybe even live into old age. The decision was relatively easy to make on the surface. The changes I would need to enact not so much.

THE MCDOUGALL WAY

In one week on this new way of eating and exercising I was able to kick all of my medications, lose 3 pounds, and begin a journey of self-healing. My total cholesterol dropped from 185 to 124. My fasting blood sugar went from 250 down to 110. I suffered from nightly heartburn that required me to take 3-4 tums a night just to sleep. This was also completely reversed with the elimination of dairy products.

CHA-CHA-CHANGES

When I got home I changed just about everything. I started to cook like a madman! I planned every meal I would eat for the entire week-3 meals a day 7 days a week. I started doing a daily power/fitness walk. I was eating ton of starches and was feeling incredibly full and never deprived. The pounds started to melt away. At work I was afforded the opportunity to lead a team that was focused on service rather than products. I would be lying if I said that I leaped at the opportunity. It was more a nudging on the part of some co-workers and one of my bosses. The changes were having an amazing affect on me and everyone who knew me could see the difference. The best part is that no one really knew the most significant changes. They were all in my brain. I was feeling so much better about myself. It is amazing what it feels like to make good decisions for ones well being even when they are difficult. You feel good about yourself and for me I quickly started to feel more and more positive about life in general. That isn't really that hard to understand. The crazy part is how I got better at work. My mind was awake! I became more organized, sharp, and thoughtful. My energy level both physically and mentally was off the charts. My boss said I looked like I was glowing. I felt like I was on fire!

june 2011-50 pounds lighter

THE FOOD

As a type 2 diabetic I was counseled to stay away from potatoes, pasta, rice, wheat and other forms of carbohydrate. What I have learned is that if I choose "whole" unprocessed versions of these items and cook them without added fats my body and my blood love me for it!

That being said you will notice that my meals are all centered on starchy foods. They keep me full, give me energy, and quite frankly are so satisfying to my pallet that I never feel deprived. I start each day with hot or cold cereal and hashbrowns. Almost every day I eat hashbrowns. Does that sound like a diet to you? I eat a lot of soup, beans, potatoes, corn, rye bavarian bread, homemade veggie burgers, polenta with greens and beans, enchiladas, tacos, and burritos. The list goes on. I don't eat a lot of tofu and soy as it is generally pretty high in fat and calories. I don't eat the isolated soy protein products because while most are low in fat they are some of the most industrially processed foods on the market.

Living in California I have the opportunity to buy a lot of seasonal fresh produce. That will influence many of the posts. I will also show you how I ensure my success by planning ahead and leaving very little to chance.

This diet is incredible simple in structure and concept. Its very difficult to execute. We are surrounded by incredibly convenient really unhealthy food. When you make a decision to eat real food and limit your fat intake you will quickly realize that for the most part its a D.I.Y. endeavor.

If you have read this far then you must be related to me or have insomnia. At any rate that is the back story. The hardest part for you the reader is over. From here on out I will be focusing on the really exciting part...

THE FOOD!!!!

-benjamin

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Comments

What a wonderful story!!!! Hopefully more employers will take note of the benefits of the immersion program......it not only saves them money in the long run, but more importantly, it saves peoples lives! Very Inspiring!

Good on you dude!I'm 5'2" and although I didn't have any major health problems like diabetes I was heading there! In February this year I weighed 90kg (198.4lb)now 9 months later I have lost 16.1kg (35.5lb), which may not sound like a lot for 9 months, but for me it's HUGE!! I will admit that I am very lazy and rarely exercise outside of my work at an animal shelter.I'm so with you on the "diet" I was eating hash browns, baked bean and mushrooms almost every morning for breakfast for a while, due to tasting awesome and making me full and tonight I'm having chilli "cheese" fries, oh yeah I love this "diet"!Keep up the good work :) xo

Actually I'm a total idiot! I did have a major health problem, Hyperthyroidism!! If you like you can read about me here: http://vegansj.blogspot.com/2011/05/why-am-i-vegan.htmlI was on 2 different meds, within 2 months I stopped them and my Endocrinologist told me 3 months after that I was in remission!

wow, Benjamin. I loved this! I am a doctor, a chef, and a vegan - and I find that so often people are unwilling to question the information, messages, and emotional relationships that we have with food, despite all of the evidence. For a gourmet foods purveyor to make a change like this, and clearly eat well and feel great, is inspiring! Rock on, man.

EEE-Lite-the food seduction is a very powerful thing. It took a complete paradigm shift for me to even begin to think about this stuff in a new light. You may find the work of Doug Lisle very helpful in talking to patients. His stuff is like the psychological glue that holds all the nutrition info together. Check out the knowledge tab for a taste.

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